Congress accepts Nirupam's apology over article in party mouthpiece

The Congress has accepted the apology of its Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam over a controversial article in December in its mouthpiece "Congress Darshan", a party leader said here on Saturday.

The article, which had shown several leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in poor light and labelled party president Sonia Gandhi's father as a "fascist soldier" had raised a question over Nirupam's continuance as the party's city chief.

Though Nirupam immediately tendered an unconditional apology, some leaders bayed for his blood. However, the AICC's Central Disciplinary Action Committee of AICC has accepted his apology and warned him to be careful in such matters in future.

"Yes, the party has accepted Nirupam's apology… He had also accepted moral responsibility for the inaccurate, malicious and baseless comments made against top Congress leaders in the article," a party leader told IANS.

However, he has been warned to exercise caution in future while sourcing and publishing materials in the party magazine to ensure such grave mistakes are not repeated.

Among other things, the unattributed article had blasted Nehru's policies on Jammu & Kashmir and China and Tibet, besides portraying Sonia Gandhi's father Stephano Maino in a poor light, just a day before the party celebrated its 131st foundation day.

The magazine's content editor Sudhir Joshi was promptly sacked by editor Nirupam who himself was slapped with a show-cause notice by the party high command seeking explanation on the embarrassing goof-ups.

A former Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MP, Nirupam had quit the Shiv Sena nearly a decade ago to join the Congress.